Statistics

I'm on the internet reading news aggregators, blogs, Facebook, Twitter and everything else. So I see a lot. You become sorta' blasé about the whole thing. Not that it's not enjoyable. It is. Most of the time. Well, a good portion of the time. I don't like all the arguing to be honest. So I tend to stay out of comboxes. I like connecting with folks but inevitably someone comes and starts yelling and taking something you wrote and twisting it into its worst possible meaning. It's tiring.
And I read lots of folks being clever. I do it myself. Instead of actual commentary I drop some snark and call it a day. And I read some folks trying to be clever. Sometimes it can all feel a little formulaic. But then you read something real. You read a real story about real people who went through something terrible, had their faith tested, and came out the other end.
This story is one of them. Check it out:

Call 911!
A loud thud startled me awake from a deep sleep. Alarmed, my wife and I immediately sat up. Confused, I groped for the light switch as something heavy fell on my wife’s side of the bed. “What is it?” I asked, to no one in particular. As parents of eight children, my wife and I had been awakened in the middle of the night before. But this time, something was different.
I finally found the light switch, and leaped out of bed to find my teenage son’s limp body lying in my wife’s arms. “Are you sick? What’s the matter?” Blinking repeatedly, I strained to make sense of the sight. My wife, ever attuned to our children, was already cradling him, assessing his condition.
“Mom, pray for me” I heard him say in a weak voice, amidst labored gasps. “I’m dying. I can’t breathe.”
“What’s the matter?” I repeated dully, still attempting to comprehend the situation.
“The drugs.”

I have voted in every presidential election since 1972 and I have never experienced an election like this year’s. Both candidates are disliked, lack credibility, and have made comments that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. The American public is fed up with politics as usual and with the establishment in both parties. So, what should Catholics do when we vote in November?

Predictably, people who attend religious services tended to want to protect religious liberty more than others. So in the end, once again, we do not have a political problem so much as a religious one.

Americans are closely divided on the question of being compelled to celebrate same-sex marriages, according to a recent survey by the Pew Research Center.
Those surveyed split evenly on whether wedding-related businesses should be required to provide services to same-sex couples, regardless of religious objections the business owners might have.
A total of 49 percent agreed, while 48 percent disagreed.

Once you accept that life is disposable, monkeying with it isn't that big of a jump.

Scientists have announced the first birth of a child born with DNA from three parents. The procedure was developed to prevent a mother from passing to her baby a serious and fatal genetic mutation. This might sound like good news. It is not.
Because the procedure has not been approved in the United States, the U.S. doctor who performed it, John Zhang, did so in Mexico. “There are no rules there,” he said.